Washington voters have the nation’s attention as they weigh in this week on key races — for U.S. Senate and the 3rd Congressional District — that could help shift the balance of power in Congress.
Ballots must be postmarked by 8 p.m. Tuesday in the state’s top two primary. In Clark County, about 22 percent of ballots had been returned by Thursday. County auditor Greg Kimsey has predicted a 38 percent return when all the ballots are counted. The Clark County Elections Department mailed 218,162 primary ballots in July, the most ever.
In one of the state’s marquee races, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, a three-term Democrat who has ascended to the Senate’s leadership circle during her 18 years of service, faces her toughest challenge yet from Republican Dino Rossi, a former state senator and two-time candidate for governor.
Rossi, who was recruited by the Senate Republican leadership, is campaigning on Murray’s record as a “big spender” who helped create the mounting federal deficit. Murray has vigorously defended her success in delivering federal projects for Washington.
Tea Party candidate Clint Didier, a farmer and former pro football player who landed the endorsement of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, is considered a long shot to edge out Rossi and place in the top two.
3rd District
In Southwest Washington, Republicans have their best chance in a dozen years to win the 3rd Congressional District seat. The seat has been held by Rep. Brian Baird, a Vancouver Democrat, for a dozen years, and by Democrats for all but four of the past 50 years.
Despite that history, the 3rd, which extends from Olympia to the Columbia River and from the Pacific Coast to the Columbia Gorge, is considered a true swing district. In 2008, it voted for both Rossi and Barack Obama. Baird himself is a maverick, who tested his Democratic base by supporting President George W. Bush’s Iraq troop surge.
The Cook Political Report ranks Washington’s 3rd District as one of 30 races for House seats currently held by Democrats that are toss-ups in the general election. Only three Republican seats are rated as toss-ups.
With the insurgent Tea Party making inroads into the GOP base, Republicans also have an enthusiasm advantage, a fact that even Washington Democratic Party Chairman Dwight Pelz does not dispute.
Of the six candidates running, Democrat Denny Heck, a former state legislator and founder of TVW, the state’s version of C-SPAN, has been endorsed by Baird and Gov. Chris Gregoire and appears likely to place in the top two. The Olympia businessman, a political moderate, has raised nearly $1 million, counting the $350,000 he has given to his own campaign.
The real race is on the Republican side, between state Rep. Jaime Herrera, who has positioned herself as a moderate focused on controlling federal spending, and Olympia financial consultant David Castillo, a conservative who served in the George W. Bush administration. Herrera has the advantage of name familiarity; Castillo has spent a lot of time campaigning in Clark County, where nearly half of 3rd District voters live, in an effort to make himself more familiar to voters.
David W. Hedrick, a Tea Party Republican who made his name challenging Baird at a health care town hall last year, has a following and has made some inroads in the contest. Olympia peace activist Cheryl Crist and Norma Jean Stevens, a Pacific County independent, also are running for the 3rd District seat.
Both Castillo and Heck have downplayed their party affiliation, omitting mention of it on their websites and most campaign signs.
Castillo said his campaign made a deliberate decision not to advertise his party on the site.
“As soon as people see you are a Republican or a Democrat or a liberal, they won’t go further,” he said. “What we wanted to do was lay out our policy positions and make sure no one would stop reading just because of our party affiliation.”
Grant Lahmann, a spokesman for Heck’s campaign, said the issues Heck is addressing, including the need to create jobs and rein in Wall Street, are not partisan.
“Everybody across the district will know that Denny is a Democrat” because he makes no secret of it and is identified as such on the ballot, Lahmann said.
Herrera, the only elected official in the race, has prominently displayed her Republican party affiliation on her signs and website.
Last week, as voters marked their ballots, both Castillo and Herrera held “victory rallies,” and Castillo sent out a last-minute plea for contributions to allow him to keep running radio ads over the weekend.
Both Heck and Herrera have been running cable TV campaign ads in the Portland and Seattle metro area markets.
Down the ticket
In state contests, Clark County voters will pick candidates for House seats in the 49th, 17th, 18th and 15th legislative districts. The primary will winnow the field in contests for open seats in the 17th and 18th districts, where Rep. Deb Wallace and Herrera, respectively, are not seeking reelection. The top two vote-getters in those races will compete in the general election regardless of their political party.
In races with just two candidates, both will advance to the general election. However, the primary results will serve as a kind of straw poll gauging the strength of candidates as they head into the fall campaign.
Voters in Clark County will pick the top two candidates for county assessor, county prosecuting attorney, Clark Public Utilities commissioner, and Vancouver city council.
Three state Supreme Court justice positions and one race for the state Court of Appeals are on the primary ballot. Those races actually may be decided in the primary. If a candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote in any of those contests, that candidate’s name will appear alone on the general election ballot.
Voters also will decide whether to renew emergency medical services tax levies in Fire District 6 and the city of Washougal and whether to allow the Fort Vancouver Regional Library to renew its regular property tax levy.
Ballots may be mailed to the elections department, deposited at the red drop box near West 14th and Esther streets 24 hours a day, or taken to nearly three dozen ballot drop-off locations on Tuesday.
